


Time After Time

by Noducksinpond



Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: But only for a little bit at the end there, Canon Compliant, F/M, Future Fic, Growing Up Together
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-31
Updated: 2015-06-05
Packaged: 2018-04-02 04:01:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,201
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4045147
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Noducksinpond/pseuds/Noducksinpond
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Iris was always going to be the centre of his universe<br/>                                                                                 She couldn´t let go of Barry even if she tried.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Barry

**Author's Note:**

> Yep, this has probably been done before, and maybe even better than this, but I wanted to give it a go regardless of that. Simply the story of how we got from Iris and Barry meeting as kids, to getting together as adults, if you ask me. As this thing evolved I decided to write an Iris companion chapter, so you can look forward to that in the near future.

The thing about Iris West was that once she was in your heart, once she was your friend, your girlfriend or whatever, she never got out. Barry had gotten his first taste of that when he was seven, and first met Mr Vest´s daughter. He knew Mr Vest was one of his parents´ friends, but he had never really seen much of him, until the day he met Iris.

Like most seven year old boys, Barry Allen thought girls were stupid, or at least not worth spending time with for too long. He changes his mind approximately 1 hour after he meets Iris, which he later thinks has got to be a new record for how quickly Iris gets into someone´s heart. But he doesn´t think that until much later, in a time where he´s stopped trying to forget Iris and pretend he isn´t head over heels in love with her, because that´s impossible, and in that one case he doesn´t believe in the impossible.

Iris is bright, like a shining ball of light that makes you feel better, whenever you´re near her. She is fun to hang out with too, always drags him along on adventures, because she is unstoppable, pulls him up whenever he gets punched, and he quickly decides she is his best friend. There is nobody else he has more fun with than he does with her. And when he´s 10, and Iris tells him he´s her best friend too, his heart definitely swells with something.

When he´s 11, his world ends. He loses his mother, he loses his dad, he loses his home, and Mr Vest, or Joe as he gets told to call him, doesn´t believe what he is telling him. The only thing he doesn´t lose, the only thing the man in yellow isn´t taking away from him is Iris. Iris, who still defends him, whenever Girder calls Barry´s dad a murderer, and Iris who still helps him fall back to sleep, whenever he wakes up screaming. Iris who understands what it´s like, even if her mother was already half gone when she died. Those first few months living with Joe and Iris, is the first time it dawns on him that he doesn´t know what he´d do without Iris. He squashes down the feeling though, because it´s stupid. Of course it´s stupid.

He´s 13 when he faces the fact that he might have a crush on Iris, or at least think she is pretty. Both are embarrassing obviously, even if your best friend is a really pretty girl with a smile that can light up an entire room. On top of that she has a boyfriend, a big relatively scary guy, who already doesn´t really like Barry, even if Iris assured him that Barry and her have been best friends since forever, and that she definitely doesn´t like him like that. That definitely shouldn´t hurt, because it´s not like he actually expected her to like him back, but it still does a little.

He slams the door to his bedroom shut, and absolutely hates his life when he is 15. Or rather, he is pissed at Iris, because why she would even just be wearing a towel? It´s a towel and she lives in the same house, as a 15 year old boy. What did she think was going to happen? But as he is desperately trying to think of something that isn´t Iris´ gorgeous legs, or how the towel had been hanging low enough for him to see the top of her breasts, he reminds himself that she doesn´t know. Iris doesn´t know that he has this dumb crush on her, so he has to get better at just being normal. He can do normal, he tells himself as he is breathing hard and leaning against the wall, his dick definitely straining way too hard against his jeans. He can do normal. But it´s not the first time this has happened and it´s not the last time either.

When he is 17, he wishes Iris would stop touching him all the time. Iris is the kind of person, who hugs, touches and cling onto anyone she is friends with, and it is both the best and the worst thing imaginable. Because on one hand, he enjoys the feeling of Iris pressed tightly against him in a hug, he likes her hand ruffling his hair, and the shoves he gets whenever she is surprised, makes him laugh. But on the other hand, that´s all it´ll ever be. He won´t ever to feel how her lips feel, when he kisses her, he won´t get to suck down hard on her bottom lip, or let his hands brush over her naked skin, and he hates it. He´s also accepted by now that he has a crush on her, and that it´s absolutely and completely pathetic.

Becky Cooper breaks up with him 3 days after his 18th birthday, and Iris takes him out to celebrate. Her words not his. He remembers thinking for a moment there, when he founds out just how much Iris disliked Becky, that she might be jealous, which of course was the kind of optimistic and pathetic thing, he shouldn´t be thinking. That didn´t stop him though, and it quickly turned out that Iris simply hated Becky, because she was a nightmare. She was correct, but Barry hadn´t been able to figure out how to break up with her. That was why it had been Becky breaking up with him in the end, rather than the other way around.

So here he sits at a bar, with a smiling, positively joyful Iris. They´re laughing and she leans heavily against him, telling him that he needs to stop selling himself so short. He is absolutely amazing, and he could do much better than Becky, and he almost blurts out that the only girl he is really interested in is Iris, but he catches himself. It´s going to mess things up and he knows it. So he settles his mind on finding another girlfriend, slightly nicer than Becky, that can help him move past Iris. Not right now though, but he will, he definitely will. Eventually.

He´s 21 and past a college girlfriend, when he flat out gives up. Either that or accepts the fact that he is never moving past Iris. That depends on how pathetic he is comfortable with sounding. He doesn´t even see Iris everyday anymore, and yet she is still in the back of his head, whenever his roommate Hal mentioned any girl in a bar. Because none of those girls has an Iris West trademark sunshine smile, none of those girls can give you a hug that makes it feel like time slows down. None of them is so beautiful it feels like he stops breathing, when he sees them. None of them is Iris. Does he get other girlfriends? Yes, he does. Does he move past Iris? Not in this universe.

The first thing he does, after waking up from his coma, when he is 25 is go to Jitters. He doesn´t bother calling Joe, or Iron Heights to talk with his dad first, he needs to see Iris. He just needs to see Iris, and she would be working about now. It quickly turns out she is, and as he walks through the door to café, he just stares at her for a second. He hasn´t seen her in 9 months, even if he doesn´t remember it. The sight of her warms him up from the outside in. But then she sees him, and before he knows what is happening, Iris has enveloped him in a tight bone crushing hug. She asks him questions, and he answers as well as he can. But honestly right now, he doesn´t care, because he is here with Iris.

He´s almost 27, when Iris kisses him. Really kisses him in a timeline that won´t get erased or deleted or whatever. This is real, and it´s gonna keep on being real. They´re back at Star Labs, both of them having had to get patched up, and he sits down quietly next to her, maybe closer than he should, but he doesn´t care. He doesn´t know what he says, in hindsight it doesn´t really matter, but she looks at him, and closes the already short distance between them. Every nerve ending in his body is instantly on fire, and he cups her face gently right away, the kiss quickly deepening, while still remaining soft and gentle. Iris´ bruised fingers bury themselves in his shirt, and she sighs as they slowly pull apart. He rests his forehead against hers, smiling tenderly at her, and knows in his heart that this is a seismic shift. That this will change things between them definitively, but that´s okay. It doesn´t matter what changes in his life, Iris was always going to be the centre of his universe.


	2. Iris

Barry Allen was the kind of person, you couldn´t help but want in your life. At least if you allowed herself to get to know him. Barry wasn´t always happy, but he always brought this light into everything, this optimistic outlook on things, that genuinely made you believe tomorrow was going to be a better day. When she was 7 years old and met him for the first time, about 3 months after her mother was gone, Iris definitely needed that. Her dad was good at acting relatively normal whenever they visited the Allens, but there was this gloominess about home, that made Iris miss her mother more than she could even imagine. But whenever she sees Barry, she is happier and everything seems easier. That´s why she doesn´t get, that it seems like he doesn´t have a single friend. He is always alone at school, and he is Tony´s favourite victim. So when she is 7 years old, Iris makes a choice to make him her friend. Not that he´s hard to persuade, it´s actually a lot easier than she expected, which probably says a lot about just how lonely he was without saying. In the beginning, she has to think about it, remember to ask Barry about things, and have fun with him, but gradually it becomes fluent, almost as natural as breathing.

When they´re 10 she jokingly asks him, if he even has other friends than her. He talks about Mike, and some other boys, but Iris knows he barely talks with them. So she cuts him off, and tells him that it doesn´t matter, because he´s her best friend. She´s never seen anyone smile a more beaming smile at her, than Barry does then, and Iris can´t help but grin right back. It´s the kind of smile that could go into the history books as the best smile ever.

A year later, when she´s 11, that light in Barry´s eyes is all but switched off. He moves in with them after what happens, because dad is the only one who can take him, she wasn´t supposed to hear that last bit, but she overheard a late night phone call between dad and auntie in Coast City. Barry is very angry, and when he isn´t yelling at her dad or in some instances at her, he is crying. Iris isn´t used to seeing boys crying, and she isn´t used to seeing Barry cry either, no matter what Girder had done to him. It stings in her chest, whenever she sees him like this, even if she does the best she can to help him. Barry had helped her so much, when she met him and maybe he didn´t know but Iris wants to return the favour anyway.

Iris is 14, the first time she gets asked whether she likes Barry. _Like_ like likes Barry, which she obviously outright denies. She is not even sure what got Shelley to ask her that in the first place! Barry is nice sure, and he´s funny and she couldn´t imagine not having him as her best friend. But it´s not like she has a crush on him or anything. However, it´s not the last time Iris gets asked that. It´s a question that is asked by future boyfriends, college friends, colleagues at Jitters, and Iris always gives them the same answer. Barry is just my best friend. That´s the standard answer until one day it isn´t, but that isn´t until much later of course, when she is realized that he is both her best friend and so much more all at once.

When she is 16, Iris is absolutely and utterly disgusted as she runs out of Barry´s room. She slams the door behind her to her room, and just stops. The worst part of this, other than she´d seen it, was that it seemed absolutely imprinted in her skull in perfect detail, which was possibly the worst thing that had ever happened to her. She´d just opened his door, meaning to ask for help regarding some math, and then seen him lying on his bed, shirt off, pants pulled down enough to reveal his hard dick, and it had taken her a second for her to realize what he was doing. But when she had, she´d screamed, and he´d screamed and scrambled to cover himself up, and Iris was pretty sure she´d yelled GROSS! Before she´d stormed out of his room again. Right now, she was just praying to every force imaginable, that she´d forget it very soon. She doesn´t though, she definitely remembers it more times than she should.

It´s just past Barry´s 18th birthday when Becky Cooper finally breaks up with him. Barry hadn´t had the heart to break up with her, even if Barry had clearly not exactly been in love with her ever, if you asked Iris. Becky Cooper was an absolute nightmare; Iris had always thought that from the moment the girl transferred here from Starling. What was even more annoying was that the girl had instantly been interested in Barry, too interested in Barry to be honest. So if you asked Iris, tonight was a celebration, and it wasn´t like Barry had been complaining. They´re sitting by the bar at one of their favourite cafes, and Iris leans heavily against his shoulder. He asks her why she disliked Becky so much, and the words are tired and muffled but she tells him anyway. Tells him he could do a lot better than Becky, and that he has to stop selling himself short, that he really is amazing. She´s not entirely sure where the words are coming from, she is probably just saying them because she´s his best friend. It´s kinda her job.

When she is 24, it feels like she dies. Both her and dad have an awful time dealing with Barry´s coma, and in the beginning she barely leaves his side, and when he gets moved to Star Labs, she still sees him practically every single day. 4 months after that awful day she starts dating detective pretty boy, and in the beginning he has trouble understanding why she has to go see him that often. But the truth is that she still needs to see Barry even if he´s unresponsive, because not going feels like letting go of him, and that is a concept Iris doesn´t even want to think about. So in the end Eddie accepts it, and it might ruin a date night or 2 or 5, but Iris feels a lot less anxious. After 6 or 7 months, her hope starts fading a little. Maybe Barry isn´t even going to wake up. That´s when she feels the electric shock.

She is almost 26, and everything is slowly getting back to normal after that awful day. Well as normal, as things can be when your boyfriend died 2 months ago, and you found out your best friend had super speed and had been in love with you for most of his life. She´s been keeping her distance to Barry for a while though, felt like the right thing to do. After all Eddie was dead because, he hadn´t changed the timeline. A tiny voice reminded her of how badly she had wanted him not to change a thing, despite what she´d said to him, but she squashed it down. They end up meeting up back at her dad´s house in the end, when Barry stops in front of her in the hallway. Iris is almost afraid of meeting his eyes, and she is just about to push past him, when he speaks, his voice low and barely audible. He tells her he misses her, tells her he knows it´s his fault Eddie is dead, and that she has every right to blame him, but he doesn´t want to a life where the two of them aren´t talking. Before he can say another word, Iris has pulled him towards her, hugging him tightly with her face buried in his shirt. She is crying and soon after, he is crying too, but none of them moves, and there is nothing Iris has ever been more grateful for, she loves him too much to let go.

It´s just past she´s turned 27, when they´ve faced off against Grodd again. And this time she´s gotten hurt, and she has just been patched up. He sits down next to her, and his shoulder and his arm touches hers, he probably does that without even thinking about it. She tells him, she won´t apologize for going with him, because she won´t. He nods, and tells her she doesn´t have to, he´s just glad she is okay. Iris turned her head to look at him, his lips were slightly parted and his eyes soft. Her eyes flicker to his lips for a second or so, before she closes the space between them and kisses him. He responds instantly, and cups her face in his hands. She buries her hands in his shirt, despite the fact that the fabric hurts against her bruised fingers. His mouth opened and Iris let her tongue slide in his mouth, then she sucks down on his bottom lip, and Barry shutters against her. She makes a low sigh, when they slowly pull apart, and he rests his forehead against hers. Her hands are still buried in Barry´s shirt, and she plans on keeping them there. She couldn´t let go of Barry even if she tried.


End file.
